Los Angeles Times

Migrants fearing deportation set fire that killed at least 39, Mexico’s president says

Viangly, a Venezuelan migrant, cries next to an ambulance in which her husband, who was injured in a fire, is being transported after a fire at the immigration station in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on March 28, 2023.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — At least 39 migrants were killed and dozens more were injured Monday night when a fire broke out in an immigrant detention center in Mexico, just south of the U.S. border, authorities said Tuesday.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the blaze in Ciudad Juarez began when migrants ignited mattresses after they found out they were going to be deported to their home countries. He said most of the dead were from Central and South America.

“They never imagined that it would cause this terrible misfortune,” López Obrador said.

A Mexican federal official with knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the migrants were protesting because 68 of them were packed into a cell meant for no more than 50 people and they had no access to drinking water.

The fire erupted at a National Migration Institute lockup about 400 feet south of the Rio Bravo, which separates Juarez from El Paso. It was the deadliest incident in recent memory to take place at one of Mexico’s notoriously crowded

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